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On top of his own follies, a teenager that makes a mockery of his passion, a wife who scolds him for doing what he loves, and a group of peers for which he serves as a laughingstock, Rock also has to endure the shady advice of his talkative friend. In almost every comic featuring this guy, he has the exact same "what ya need to do is..." kind of body language. Rock's a trusting soul and takes his friend's advice unquestioningly, but that doesn't mean it's easy. He's allowing the thought into his head that perhaps what is happening may be happening. A part of him likely knows that his plane is in a tailspin behind him, but his friend doesn't seem to have a clue. Rock should be the one giving advice, and he knows this. So if he knows what's going on better than others, why is his plane always crashing? It's tough to keep the lift and drag in sync with each other when the world is conspiring against you. Physics. People. Even yourself and your dumb blunders. The world does not want him to fly. He has the power to override whatever the world's interests are, but the fact that so much resistance is being thrown at him in the first place is disheartening. All he wants to do is fly around a radio-controlled model airplane every once in a while, but it almost seems as though everyone and everything delights in seeing his plane violently slam into the ground. An airplane is one of the easiest devices to wax poetic about. You've got the classic "I wish I could be free and fly like a bird" cliché in your pocket to save for a rainy day. You've got all three physical axes (X, Y and Z) with which to work, whereas most other things only have two. But the thing I find truly fascinating about an airplane is that it has to keep working to avoid death. It can't stop to take a breather, and it can't just idle if it's running out of fuel. Any lapse in purpose or attention, and it will meet its death. It has to keep moving until its landing gear safely rolls to a stop on the runway. It's a damn lucky thing that our souls aren't the same way. And yet, the plane really does serve as Rock's spirits. One of the world's discouraging agents will do all it can to momentarily cost Rock the will to keep his concentration, and his soul smashes mercilessly into pieces. Yet he continues his torment by resurrecting it ad infinitum, because he is too stubborn to quit. He's died a hundred deaths, and he'll die a hundred more, refusing to rest. |